NORTHAMPTON ELIMINATES BETHLEHEM TWP. IN BML * YODER SPARKS THE GIANTS WITH A FIRST-INNING HOME RUN, THEN CLOSES OUT A 6-3 VICTORY.

TED MEIXELL, The Morning CallTHE MORNING CALL

P.J. Yoder did his imitation of bookends Friday night to propel Northampton past host Bethlehem Township and into the Blue Mountain League semifinals.

Yoder started the Giants' second 6-3 victory over the Pirates (23-19) in as many nights with his bat, then ended it with his right arm.

He drove youthful right-hander Ryan Amey's second pitch of the game right through a stiff breeze and over a tree beyond the 390-foot sign in dead center to open the game.

Later, when Jeremy Arner and Eric Faisetty, the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters in the Pirates' lineup, led off the bottom of the seventh with back-to-back homers off winning pitcher Jeff Erschen to reduce Northampton's lead from 6-1 to 6-3, Giants skipper Ed Wandler summoned Yoder, his fastball-pumping closer, to finish things off.

He did -- but not before enduring some tense moments. He walked two of the first three guys he faced, Mark Nicholas and Craig Geiger, thus enabling the Townshipers to send the tying run to the plate. Twice. But Chris Bensing made a fine catch of Dan Borden's belt to deep center, and first baseman Cory Schneck ranged far to his left to snag Pat Hollander's sharp one-hopper and ran to the bag to end the game.

Turns out a fuming Yoder felt the plate umpire was the reason for his Mitch Williamsesque performance, not a lack of control on his own part.

"Last year when I had an inning like that in relief, you could say I went to Mitch's school of relief pitching," Yoder said. "I was all over the place.

"Not tonight. Those pitches were right there. Curt (catcher Dimmick) didn't even have to move his glove. One of those pitches he called a ball was right down the middle.

"A shame. The guy called a great game for six innings ... then he had to start squeezing in the seventh."

Given the opportunity to soften his words, Yoder didn't back down. "I don't think those pitches were there, I know they were there."

In any case, the Giants (28-14) finished a two-game first-round sweep. They'll begin semifinal play on the road at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at Martins Creek. In the other semifinal Catasauqua, which ousted Limeport with a 6-3 victory Friday, will play at Banko's, also at 1:30 on Sunday.

After Yoder's leadoff blast in the first, Northampton added a run on singles by Shawn Hughes and Mike Reenock, and on Dimmick's double-play ball.

On the latter, the Pirates came within a whisker of turning a triple play. Hughes was at third when Dimmick hit a hump-backed liner toward shortstop Jeremy Bartha, but he couldn't immediately break for the plate because Bartha very nearly caught the ball on the fly.

When Bartha short-hopped it, he started a snappy 6-4-3 double play -- and first baseman Pat Hollander's throw to the plate almost nailed the late-starting Hughes.

Amey, who threw for Lower Macungie Legion most of the summer, was touched for three more runs in the second, one on Mike Bodnar's solo homer to left -- but deserved a better fate. Two infield boots made the second and third tallies unearned.

Reenock's double and Ted Long's single to right made it 6-0 in the top of the fifth, but the Pirates got on the board in the bottom of the inning on consecutive doubles by Faisetty and Nicholas.

"We found an offensive spark too late in the game," lamented Pirates' boss Jason Brown. "For the first six innings, I didn't think we'd come back at them at all. We had no fire at all; it looked like we were just going through the motions."

With a grin, Brown quipped, "The quote I was planning to give you was, 'We didn't play very good defense, but we made up for that by not hitting, either.'

"It looked like we'd just go quietly. But we didn't; we at least put up a fight in the seventh inning. Still, our hitting let us down -- which is ironicbecause, with our pitching staff decimated by injuries, hitting is what carried us this year."

Yoder emphatically noted that he and his teammates hope to meet Martins Creek in the next round.

"They're the ones who knocked us out last year," he explained. "If you're any kind of a competitor, you have to want the team that eliminated you the last time. I know I want another piece of them."